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Fleming, Louise E.The General Education Board and Their Contributiontoward Vocationalizing Public Schools 1905-1925.Feb 9154p.

Historical Materials (060)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Academic Education; *Educational Discrimination;

*Educational History; Educational Opportunities;Elementary Secondary Education; *Private FinancialSupport; *Public Education; Rural Education; TrackSystem (Education); *Vocational Education

IDENTIFIERS *General Education Board

ABSTRACTBetween 1905 and 1925, the General Education Board

(GEB) continued John D. Rockefeller's pattern of philanthropy foreducation and stablisl.k4 its own philosophies of what programs toendow and what directions were apprnpriate for educatiov.. Programsthat the GEB established and funded demonstrate their goals foreducation. Many of these programs resulted in the growth ofvocationalism within public schooling. This study explores five areasregarding vocationalism of public education: (1) secondary education;(2) elementary education; (3) surveys of education; (4) positionstatements; and (5) mental measurements. Analysis of the fivesegments showed that the GEB acted as if people's destinies were setand that education should parallel these destinies and prepare peopleto meet them. In the thtee educational programs, successful andinfluential changes were made in the curriculum without persuasion bythe GEB. A pattern of control over the programs funded is seen.Examination of enrollment in public high schools by course of studyindicates that through all of the vocationalizing, students preferredacademics. From the evidence, the nationwide movement toward a"factory model" of schooling did have its zoot belief in theinferiority of certain classes of people. Thw study showed that apaternalistic attitude extended to rural and poor people of ethnicderivation also. (Two appendices - -Enrollment in Public High Schoolsby Course of Study and Sample General Education BoardAppropriations - -and 102 references are included.) (NLA)

***Aft******************************************************************

* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *

* from the original document. *

***********************************************************************

THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD AND THEIR

CONTRIBUTION TOWARD VOCATIONALIZING

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1905 - 1925

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

iteOft of Educationsi Resesrcn and Improvement

E uOATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

Thei document hes Wen WrOduCOO Siwimp" from the person or organization

originating 4C.' Minor changes nev bps mid, to improve

reproduction quahty

Pomts 0 voill or opinions IMMO m this docu

ment do not neeMarity ref:0'114MM official

OE RI position or policy

Louise E. Fleming

February, 1991

2

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD AND THEIR

CONTRIBUTION TOWARD VOCATIONALIZING

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1905 - 1925

The General Education Board was formed in 1903 by

John D. Rockefeller to represent him in financial iiving

toward education. He had established a precedent of phil-

anthropy and wished to have more direction in his gifts

toward education. During the period 1905 to 1925 the

General Education Board (GEB) did continue Rockefeller's

pattern of giving in education and in fact established its

own philosophies of what programs to endow and what

directions the members thought were appropriate for

education. Through programs which they established and

funded, insight can be gained regarding their goals for

education. Many of these programs resulted in the growth

of vocationalism within public schooling.'

1

1Rarymond B. Fosdick, Adventure in Giying: The Story ofthe General Educatign Boul (New York: Harper & Row,Publishers, 1962), 63.

2

Yet, turning over the philanthropic duties to a

board did not remove Rockefeller from the action. With one

of his early donations to the GEB he issued he following

explanation:

In making my recent gift to the General Education Board. . . I provided that two-thirds of the gift Should beapplied to such specific objects within the corporatepurposes of the Board as either I or my son might fromtime to time direct.2

In other words the GEB's philosophy of giving had to reflect

that of its benefactor, John D. Rockefeller, Exploring

these gifts and their results is enlightening as to GEB and

Rockefeller purposes and influence exerted on changing the

public school curriculum to a more vocationalizing functiOn

that had existed before.

Four areas are important to explore regarding

vocationalism of public education: secondary education,

elementary education, surveys of education and policy

statements. A fifth areal mental measurements, is also

interesting, regarding letters that were exchanged and a

resulting donation.

2john D. Rockefeller, to General Education Board, 15August 1907. General Education Board records Series 1. Box345. Folder 3569. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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pecondarv Iducatign

Beginning about 1905, the GED adopted a program to

improve Southern education. GEB officials worked through

the president of the state university in states which chose

to participate. This president recommended a professor of

secondary education from his staff, and the GEB paid part of

the professor's salary to represent them in improving

secondary education in that state. The professor then

traveled to schools, worked with local administrators, made

recommendations, and helped to implement programs.3

Many of the letters were concerned with business,

such as dates for meetings. Other letters listed courses,

changes that were being made, and whom the professor was

meeting with and when the meeting would occur. Often the

letters expressed dismay at how slowly moving the local

administrators were. This study focuses on letters and

reports that pertain to curriculum. In addition, the

material used is a representative sampling of what is

expressed in the collection.

Early reports tend to reflect mostiy academic

programs, with such additional electives as agriculture,

manual training, domestic science, school garden work, and

31William A. Link, AL 'lard Country a Lonply Place:achoolina. Society. and Ileform. in, Rural Virginia. (ChapelHill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986),117-118.

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bookkeeping. Yet, as time progressed the professora'

interest turned greatly to vocational education, par-

ticularly agricultural and domestic. An example is Joseph

S. Stewart in Georgia. Through 1905 he recommended a highly

academic program. Yet, in 1906 he visited a private

industrial school. H. boasted to Wallace Buttrick of the

GEB about the work in the home, dairy, garden, barns, and

woodworking shop. He then recommended higher taxes to

support schools. He hastened to add that they did not have

to be as industrial as the one he had visited. However,

that Fall, the Georgia legislature passed legislation to

build an agricultural high school for every congressional

district. Stewart had assisted in formulating the curri-

culum for these schools: English, mathematics, history,

science plus agriculture, shop work, laboratories, and farm

plots. Buttrick advised him to oversee these schools, to

get the best men to run them, and to write him monthly

reports.'

'Joel C. Dubose, Alabama, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB, 19August 1907. "Rules and Regulations for the Government ofthe County High Schools of Alabama with Course of Study andList of Textbooks for These Schools," June 1911. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 13. Folder 109. W.

H. Handl South Carolina, report to GEB, 18 October 1906.Report to Buttrick, 3 October 1907. General EducationBoard. Series le Box 128, Folder 1173. Joseph S. Stewart,Georgia, to Buttrick, GEB, 3 July 1905, 15 November 1905, 8May 1906, 3 September 1906, 10,November 1906. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 57. Folder 505.Rockefeller Archive Center.

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Bruce R. Payne was tho first Profssor of Secondary

Education for Virginia. Payne sent a booklet to Blettrick in

1906, with a cover letter that hoz had addressed to 154

principals in the state. The booklet recommended agri-

culture, nature study, and school gardening. In 1911,

Charles G. Maphis replaced Payne. A letter of 1912 from

Maphis to a superintendent blamed over-stressing preparation

for professions in school for the high dropout rate. By the

end of the second year, he stated, 30% had dropped out; the

third, 54%, and the fourth, 66%. He defined equality of

opportunity as offering parallel courses of study, equally

emphasized: classical, business, agricultural, domestic

arts, etc. He stated, "Your schedule administers practi-

cally the same diet to all alike, though their tasks may be

different and their needs may vary." He recommended English

and mathematics being required and everything else being

electives, such as Latin, German, French, history, -:ience,

typewriting, bookkeeping, stenography, commercial

arithmetic, psychology, and the principles of teaching. He

urged the superintendent not to require Latin for the

commercial courses, to have less homework, to strengthen the

commercial courses, and to add manual training, domestic

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science, and homemaking (domestic arts). "Your attendance

is far too low . . . " he concluded.5

West Virginia professor, L. L. Friend, wrote that he

was working on establithing more high schools. He sent an

annual report in 1912 stating that agriculture was offered

in many high schools but not always seriously enough. Not

many were offering domestic science and manual training, he

reported, and where they had been introduced, high school

instruction was in closer contact with life. He also

recommended practical application of chemistry, hygiene,

geometry, and drawing. Furthermore, he reported that

several high schools were offering commercial courses and

emphasizing practical EnVish.'

Other professors reported similar results in voca-

tional expansion. Some oversaw the building of agricultural

high schools or the addition of industrial and household

5 Bruce R. Payne, Virginia, to Buttrick, GEB, 31October 1906 General Education Board records. Series 1. Box180. Folder 1684. Charles G. Haphis, Virginia, to Superin-tendent (copy to GEB), 23 May 1912. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 180. Folder 1686. RockefellerArchive Center.

6 L. L. Friend, "Annual Report of the State Supervisorof High Schools of West Virginia for the School Year1911-1912," to GEB, November 1912. Genral Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 190. Folder 1782. RockefellerArchive Center.

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arts in more schools. All indicated that these courses

represented "progress" and that the changes were welcome.?

Also important to describing General Education Board

influence on secondary education is work that they sponsored

by conferences and other programs such as State Agent for

Secondary Education. For example, South Carolina had a

state high school inspector, B. L. Parkinson, who reported

to the GEB. He reported in 1920-21 that 33% of South

Carolina's secondary pupil- untie in vocational courses,

which made up 11.2% of the total teaching time in the

state.8

H. M. Ivy, the State Supervisor of Secondary Schools

for Mississippi, reported that he had recommended that a

school district reopen their manual training shop. The

State Agent for Florida, W. S. Cawthon, stated that one

7 McHenry Rhoads, Kentucky, to Henry S. Barker,Kentucky, (copies to Buttrick, GEB), 2 September 1915, 3October 1913, General Education Board records. Series 1. Box77. Folder 674. B. W. Torreyson, Arkansas, "EducationProgress in Arkansas, June 1914 - June 1915," to GEB.General Education Board records. Series I. Box 22. Folder192. Ino A. Thackston, Florida, to E. C. Sage, GEB, 14April 1914. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box35. Folder 318. Thomas P. Bailey, Mississippi, Report toGEB, December 1908. General Education Board records. Series1. Box 93. Folder 829. Rockefeller Archive Center.

8 B. L. Parkinson, South Carolina, "Annual Report of B.L. Parkinson, State High School Inspector for 1920-21," 25,28. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 129.

Folder 1183. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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department of home economics had been made right, "a full

time teacher well qualified having been employed.°

A conference of state education personnel was held

in April of 1919. The conference report stated that the

public's interest had boon awakened and changes had been

taking plat.s. They requested that the GEB continua their

participation in their schools for the sake Jf profes-

sionalism and continuity from state to state. Following

that, a conference of state superintendents reported that

Smith-Hughes funds were working well and that county school

boards were buying property for training and industrial

schools. Following a conference in 1924, A. A. MUrphee,

President of the University of Florida, and John W.

Abercrombie, State Superintendent of Education in Alabama,

wrote to the president of the GEB that the recommendations

9 H. N. Ivy, Mississippi, Report to W. E. Bond,Mississippi, 30 October 1920. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 94. Folder 836. W. S. Cawthon,Florida, Report to GEB, 5 October 1920. General EducationBoard records. Series 1. Box 32. Folder 290. RockefellerArchive Center.

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had paralleled exactly the recommendations of the GEL"

Although a deliberate connection cannot be made between GEB

recommendations and conference results, at least one can

uspect that the GEB's agenda usually took precedent at such

conferences.

A further writing by Jackson Davis, Assistant

Director of Education in 1932 is enlightening regarding the

General Education Board's influence on State Boards of

education. Their policy was to recognize the authority and

responsibility of the state superintendent of education and

assist the state department in building a competent staff,

but the policy continues:

The Board, however, has the right to terminate itssupport if the essential purpose of the Board in makingthe appropriation is no'longer being carried out.

It continues by giving examples of personnel hired and fired

when GEB officials did discontinue their support. Although

this policy was not directly stated until 1932, the

1° "Report on Conference held in Baltimore, April 22,23, and 24, 1919, with the State Agents for Rural School andthe State Agents for Negro Schools, and at Old PointComfort, April 25, 26, and 27, 28, 29, and 30, 1919, withthe Professors of Secondary Education and the StateSuperintendents," and "Detailed Report of Conference ofState Superintendents, Old Point Comfort, Virginia, April28, 29, and 30, 1919." A. A. Murphee and John W.Abercrombie, to Wickcliffe Rose, GEB, 27 December 1924.General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 267. Folder2779. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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implication was that this policy had been in effect for a

long time, as the examples refer to past experiences."

Further enlightening to this discussion of General

Education Board control is an earlier letter in a series

between Henry Prichett of the Carnegie Foundation and

members of the General Education Board. The two foundations

were working together on the Conference for Education in the

South. Concerning the Conference, E. C. Sage of the GEB

wrote to Pritchett asking him to meet a day before the

conference began for:

A rather private conference with these men [the highschool inspectors] so that we may get at real things andnot waste time and opportunity at a more public meetingwhere the friends would talk to the galleries.12

Not only then, did the GEB carefully guard its

donations and resultant programs, but also its members,

although not publicly stated, did their best to present

their own agendas for professors of secondary education,

high school inspectors and other personnel who led state

educational programs to follow. And apparently they usually

were able to influence the educational leaders, to follow

" Jackson Davis, GEB, to Trevor Arnett, GEB, "GeneralPrinciples in Dealing with State Superintendents of Educa-tion," 8 December 1932. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 269. Folder 2777. Rockefeller Archive Center.

12 E. C. Sage, GEB, to Henry S. Pritchett, the CarnegieFoundation, 6 March 1909. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 207. Folder 1990. Rockefeller Archive center.

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GEB recommendations. Therefore, the change from the more

academic earlier scondary programs to the more vocational

later ones would indicate that this vas what the GEB

approved of.

By 1920-21 at least one state had 33% of their

pupils enrolled in vocational courses. Perhaps this

movement toward vocationalism would have happened without

the Rockefeller interests' involvement. Yet the fact that

they were involved so heavily speaks to their influence in

vocationalizing public secondary education following the

founding of the GEB.

Zlementary Education

The GEB also funded rural school supervisors, men

and women who oversaw the development of rural elementary

schools. Separate supervisors were appointed for black and

white schools. The focus of thim study is whits schools.

The program was widespread throughout southern states.

Those rural school supervisors' purpose was to

expand rural education and back such programs as consolida-

tion, increasing tax support, organization, salary and

training of teachers, and length of school terms. Although

no record indicates that the GEB expected the rural school

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supervisors to advance vocati.nal education, all of them

did.13

Curiously, school supervi3ors believed it was the

job of public educators to assure tho future of agriculture

and domestic science. For example, school people officiated

at fairs where children's agricultural and domestic prodtwts

were displayed. T. J. Coates of Kentucky described the

exhibits he saw in their school fairs: "the regular school

work and the work in manual training, domestic science,

agriculture, etc." Mc also boasted proudly about the work

he saw: "real dresses, and real canning . . . real plows,

real gates, and real axe-handles." L. C. Brogden of North

Carolina wrote about rural school demonstrations in which

contests and demonstrations in baking, sewing, and agri-

culture were sponsored. J. L. Bond of Arkansas sent a

pamphlet about a country school fair. There were competi-

tions in physics, writing, maps, drawing, spelling, music,

Fosdick, Adventure in Giving, 65-69. James D.Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South. 1860-1935(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988),

86. W. F. Feagin, Alabama, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 21April 1916. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box18. Folder 155. Abraham Flexner, GEL to J. N. Powers,Mississippi, 1 July 1914. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 8. Folder 868. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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needle work, manual training, farm and garden work, and club

work."

Also duAng their actual state work of goal setting,

visitations, and inspections, these rural school supervisors

promoted vocational agriculture and domestic science. W. K.

Tate of South Carolina sant a letter to his county super-

visors, encouraging them to read two pamphlets regarding

vegetable growing and preserving. Ha urged them to promote

manual training, cookin3, homekeeping, and agricultural

clubs in schools. Lueco Gunter, also of South Carolina, was

offering a workshop for educators. Some of the emphases

were manual training for boys, domestic science for girls,

industrial work taught in every school, and home and farm

demonstration work closely allied with school. L. C.

Brogden reported that his "progressive teachers" gave

regular and systematic instrucaon in agriculture to boys;

tomato growing and canning to girls, plus home gardening,

cooking and sewing, home making, and house keeping. He also

encouraged county demonstration schools. These, he

believed, should instruct teachers how to teach cooking,

" "Summary of Reports of Mr. T. J. Coates - StateAgent for Rural Schools in Kentucky, July 1, 1915 to January1, 1916." General Education Board records. Series 1. Box81. Folder 710. "Report of L. C. Brogden - State Agent forRural Schools for North Carolina, November 1915." GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 275. Folder 2863."Third Annual School Fair, Monroe County, October, 1915,"pamphlet. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box26. Folder 232. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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sewing, music, and practical agriculture and how to make all

courses applicable to their locations and situations. He

expected this instruction "to increase the professional

efficiency of the teachers.""

J. T. Calhoun of Mississippi reported that one of

his counties had set up as a "model county," including on

staff a farm demonstrator and an agent of home economics.

Also they were the headquarters for the county agricultural

high school. M. L. Duggan of Georgia wrote that every rural

teacher should introduce agriculture, gardening, home

economics, etc. J. L. Bond of Arkansas was emphasizing

county farm demonstrations and county canning club agents,

working through the schools. He was also recommending

industrial training, including agriculture, in rural schools

and high schools and summer school for teachers to teach

agriculture club work. J. B. Hobdy of Alabama encouraged

domestic science work in rural schools. L. J. Hanifan of

West Virginia wrote about one distinct supervisor who had

introduced manual training, domestic science, and music and

drawing. He referred to these additions as "unique." C. J.

" W. K. Tate, South Carolina, to GEB, 18 September1912. "Summary of Reports of Mr. Lueco Gunter, State Agentfor Rural Schools in South Carolina July 1, 1915 - November,1915." General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 131.Folder 1198. L. C. Brogden, North Carolina, to WallaceButtrick, GEB, 13 February 1915, Report of 11 February 1915enclosed. L. C. Brogden, to E. C. Sage, GEB, 19 December1917, report of conference. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 113. Folder 1028. RockefellerArchive Center.

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Brown of Louisiana reported that many of his schools were

doing work in domestic science, manual training and

gardening. J. B. Brown of Tennessee termed the following

report "progress": "The consolidated school with its courses

in agriculture, home economics and manual training . . . is

rapidly growing in public favor." Th following year he

also affirmed the addition of vocational subjectse.home

economics and manual training.16

William Knox Tato of South Carolina wrote about

"progress" in Charleston, part of which was a gift of $7,000

for a domestic science department. He wrote another letter

in 1912 to Frederick T. Gates of the GEB complimenting him

on his position paper on rural schools which eSpouses

agriculture over other types of education (explained further

in section "Position Statements"). He then elaborated by

citing some examples that he had seen. One school was

offering domestic science and agriculture: teachers taught

on farms and in homel( of the community. He noted also that

the most successful work in agriculture and domestic arts,

111.1.1MMI.

16 T. Calhoun, Mississippi, to Abraham Flexner, GEB,20 September 1916. General Education Board records. Series1. Box 98. Folder 868. N. L. Duggan, Georgia, to WallaceButtrick, GEB, 12 May 1917. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 69. Folder 601. J. L. Bond,Arkansas, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB, 31 December 1914, and toAbraham Flexner, GEB, 2 October 1915, and to a countysuperintendent, DATE? General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 26. Folder 230. .J. B. Brown, "Brief Statementof Progress in Rural Schools of Tennessee, 1915-1916."General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 157. Folder1463. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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sanitation, and "other things wit believe are important in

country schools" was being done in schools that already were

established in reading, writing, arithmetic, and other

standard school subjects. Buttrick responded by agreeing

that he was committed to Mr. Gates' idea. Furthermore, to

dispense with boring curriculum, Tate established a school

in an old farmhouse, with a workshop for boys and a kitchen

for girls. He did not teach academics but had the students

grow vegetables and make wooden articles. Students learned

from measuring gardens and dividing profits, including a

thorough mastery of arithmetic, reading, writing, and

English, plus, reading recipes and books about birds."

The rural school supervisors also held and attended

conferences that dealt with education. From the agendas and

reports in GEB files one can determine what were of interest

to the supervisors. Apparently these meetings were paid

for, sponsored, and attended by GEB officials. One that the

GEB sponsored was the Conference for Education in the South.

In 1914 an adopted statement included a proposal that rural

schools be the center of community life. Also they expected

that each principal be trained in agriculture and that each

school have at least one teacher trained in domestic science

"William Knox Tate, South Carolina, to Wallace Buttrick,GEB, 16 May 1906, and to Frederick T. Gates, GEB, 12 July1912, and Wallace Buttrick, GEB, to W. K. Tate, SouthCarolina, 16 July 1912. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 201. Folder 1906. Rockefeller Archive Center.Fosdick, Adyenture,in Givina, 73.

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or household economy. In 1915 Abranam Flexner invited R. H.

Wilson of Oklahoma to the Conference for Education in the

South. In it he affirmed that the GEB was greatly inter-

ested in the "entire rural school problem.011

A conference was held in Virginia about education in

1917. A pamphlet presented the program. Some topics were

canning, commerce and agriculture, marketing, and "How to

Make Christiansburg and Up-to-Date Business Community." One

invited speaker was Professor of Secondary Education,

Charles G. Maphis. Thomas Jesse Jones of Hampton Institute

spoke on food production."

A conference of rural school supervisors in 1917

proposed a list of principles that they had agreed upon.

They suggested simplifying the elementary curriculum: "The

main topics of history, geography and applied science,

including health and sanitation, should receive a fuller and

richer treatment, while many less important facts and topics

should be wholly omitted." They reiterated the point about

"William Knox Tate, Statement of Proposals adopted bySouthern Education Council and Special Committee of theConference for Education in the South, Louisville Kentucky,April 8, 1914, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB, 25 April 1914.General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 201. Folder1906. Abraham Flexner, GEB to R. H. Wilson, Oklahoma, 8 March

1915. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 300.Folder 3135. Rockefeller Archive Center.

"L. R. Dashiell, Virginia to 7rederick T. Gates, GEB,Report, 19 December 1914, and Program 3f Meetings, Christians-burg, Virginia, 26-29 June 1917. (Amaral Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 188. Folder 1765. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

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text books, that they needed to omit minor facts and

secondary matters. They recommended that all schools have

classrooms, a library, laboratories, and classrooms for

domestic science and farm mechanics. Also, in addition to a

playground, school facilities should have a school garden

and a demonstration plot. Courses, they stated, should be

closely related to the life of the community, for example

courses in home building, farm life, and rural economy."

This particular conference had an interesting back-

graund. Letters indicate that the Rural School supervisors

had planned to attend a different meeting but the GEB let

them know that they would not pay for the supervisors to

attend. A telling letter of April 1917 said that he, the

author, had heard that the GEB "were not inclined to favor"

the planned meeting. Another meeting was then scheduled by

the GEB.m

Another conference which GEB officials attended was

held April 22-24, 1919. One discussion centered on "What

Forms of Industrial Work Can Be Profitably Introduced into

Country Schools?" The account listed work that was being

"J. B. Brown, Tennessee, "Declaration of PrinciplesPrepared by Rural School Agents," to Wallace Buttrick, 2 July1917. General Education Boc.rd records. Series 1. Box 275.Folder 2862. Rockefeller Archive Center.

21C. J. Brown, Louisiana, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 3 April1917, and Abraham Flexner, GEB, to C. J. Brown, Louisiana, 4April 1917 and 11 April 1917. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 88. Folder 782. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

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done in states. In Virginia, Smith-Hughes schools were

offering elementary farm mechanics, cooking and sewing for

girls, and some woodworking for boys. In Tennessee, school

officials were consolidating schools, promoting vocational

work especially in home economics, farm mechanics, and

industrial work. In Alabama they were offering domestic

science and manual training; in Arkansas, practical agri-

culture and correlating home life with school work.n

A few inferences can be drawn about rural school

supervisors. First, these supervisors were recommending

practical and agricultural education in rural areas.

Although direction by the GEB is not obvious, Frederick

Gates' paper clearly espouses perpetuation of agriculture in

rural schools and Buttrick supported the data too. Also,

the GEB expressed interest in the "entire rural school

problem." One cannot see GEB control in vocationalizing the

rural school curriculum, yet they continued funding the

supervisors who were working toward that end. Finally,

conference results indicate that both supervisors and GEB

authoritiqs perpetuated the idea of agricultural and

domestic education for rural areas. The GEB clearly

demonstrated control, albeit unstated until 1932, through

financing. Therefore, one can conclude that in elementary

22"Report of Conference of State Agents of Rural Schools,April 22-24, 1919," to GEB. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 275. Folder 2863. Rockefeller Archive Center.

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education the GEB also supported the growth nf vocational

education.

Alums of Education

The General Education Board also conducted surveys

of education, describing the condition of education in those

states and cities which chose to have them. Sometimes the

areas invited their survey and other times the GEB.requestod

it. These surveys took differing amounts of times, from

months to years, but each time the GEB sent in a person of

their own choosing and a staff. The area was expected to

help finance the survey also. Finally, the GEB issued a

report that waa made public. Then the school people in that

location could implement the recommended programs and

changes at their own discretion.

In 1914, the GEB formed a committee to recommend the

most "fruitful" areas for educational investigation. The

three members of the committee were Jerome Greene, Wallace

Buttrick, and Abraham Flexner. Their report of October,

1914 was confidential to Board members and sheds light on

their programs' intentions and on the influence that they

deliberately wielded in the field of education. They

described the two directions of their programs: extensive,

to extend educational facilities where they had not been

before because of indifference or poverty, and intensive, to

make existing programs more reaponsive to social, economic,

and professional needs. As examples of extensive programs

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they listed Professors of Secondary Education and Rural

School agents. As examples of intensive programs they

listed establishing industrial education in Negro schools

and "constructive" educational experiments in the "ideal

rural school."'M

The report suggested surveys in all states, their

goal being for the states to compare with and emulate one

another. They especially wanted the states to pay for

these. They also suggested that the GEB help the states

select model counties in which to develop adequate educa-

tional systems, including agricultural clubs and county

training schoals. Thus "the ideal rural school, pictured by

the chairman and authorized by the Board, could be realized

more effectively. . . ." One way to do this, according to

the report, was to support county industrial teachers and to

contribute industrial equipment. They recommended five

"important phases of educational experience" to investigate

and publish. One important phase was industrial education;

one of the most urgent emphases was state surveys. John D.

Rockefeller, Jr. appreciated and valued the report."

°Jerome Greene, Wallace Buttrick, and Abraham Flexner,to members of GEB, October 1914. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 346. Folder 3586. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

24Ibid. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.November 1914. General Education Board346. Folder 3586. Rockefeller Archive

to Jerome Greene, 24records. Series 1. BoxCenter.

' .

22

The following year another GEB committee was formed

to recommend educational research, with Rockefeller as the

chairman. Flexner informed Henry Prichett that the first

venture probably would be a thorough study of the Gary

Schools. "Following this," he continued, "I hope very much

that we can enter upon the larger problem of industrial and

vocational training in the public schools." In fact a

committee was formed later that year to study industrial

education. Two opinions were offered on the subject: states

had been working to foster industrial education, both within

and outside of public schools, and a national commission was

suggesting federal money to fund vocational and industrial

schools. They selected Leonard Ayers to conduct it.25

One of the first surveys was the Maryland Survuy,

conducted in 1915 by Frank P. Bachman of the GEB. The GEB

funded three quarters of the cost. When the study was

almost completed in November, the Baltimore News summed up

the Board recommendations. "Shake-up Expected" read the

headline. According to the report, the Board was recom-

mending vocational training for industrial sections and

agricultural for farming areas. It quoted Bachman's report

as declaring it a mistake to have the same course of

Abraham Flexner, GEB, to Henry Prichett, The CarnegieFoundation, 23 June 1915. General Zducation Board records,Series 1. Box 207. Folder 1991. Judson, Frissell, Rose, andFlexner, GEB Committee, to GEB, report, 27 October 1915.Judson to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 18 December 1915. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 353. Folder 3650.Rockefeller Archive Center.

23

instruction all over the state. In 1916 the State legis-

lature accepted the GEB report and implemented its sug-

gestions. An even earlier survey in Delaware, yielded the

same results, with the state enacting the GEB recommenda-

tions.26

In 1916 Abraham Flexner wrote to W. K. Tate, Rural

School Supervisor for South Carolina, explaining that the

GEB had authorized a report of "interesting and significant

experiments" in rural education and that he wanted him to

visit progressive schools to learn and to teach about them.

One of the subjects Tate chose to fill this request was

agriculture and homemaking. He had two examples that he

mentioned: a farm life school and an agricultural high

school."

The Gary survey is also pertinent to this study.

The GEB conducted this survey in 1918, the first newspaper

reports occurring in December and continuing through June

1919. The earliest articles report that the GEB found Gary

26General Board to Do It," Baltimore, Maryland Aunt 23December 1914, and "Shake-up Expected," Baltimore, MarylandNowa, 22 November 1915. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 276. Folder 2882. Copy of legislation, MarylandState Legislature, 1916. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 276. Folder 2886. Frank Bachman, GEB, toAbraham Flexner, GEB, 4 December 1914. General EducationBoard records. Series 1. Box 207. Folder 1991. RockefellerArchive Center.

27Abraham Flexner, GEB to W. K. Tate, South Carolina, 14September 1916 and W. K. Tate, to Abraham Flexner, 14 October1916. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 353.

Folder 3647. Rockefeller Archive Center.

25

24

schools wre good but lacking administration. The report

indicates that students in these schools took arithmetic,

English, music, history, gymnasium, shop work, cooking,

sewing, drawing, the emphasis being vocational. The GEB

apparently* concluded that the work was not directly

vocational but that it had some vocational value. Different

schools had different emphases; for example one emphasized

carpentry, plumbing, sheet metal, painting, printing,

poetry, and cobbling, whereas another emphasized machine

work, foundry, forge, and painting. A later article

described GEB findings: they welcomed that school was more

than "book-work" and that it taught the "Lasiness of

Living." They praised the prograp for its enrichment an

diversification.28

In 1919 the GEB conducted a survey in Tarrytown,

North Tarrytown, and adjoining districts in New York. They

found that Tarrytown High School met college entrance

28The following are clippings: Tristram Walker Metcalfe,"Gary Plan an Experiment; Administration Defective," The Globeand Commercial AdvertLaar, 4 December 1918. Tristram WalkerMetcalfe, "Pupils Do Just about as They Please in Schools ofGary," The Globe and Cogpercial A4vertiser, 6 December 1916."From current issue of HangAL_zujaina,Zducation," newspaper? December 1918.Trangcript, clipping, 26 May 1919. "School Life," Departmentof the Interior, Bureau of Education, 10 (16 December 1918).General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 297. Folder3098. Rockefeller Archive Center. Henry W. Holmes, "The GarySystem Examined," Review 612-613.Charles R. Richards, "Industrial Work of the Gary PublicSchools, IndustriAl-Arta Magazine. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 297. Folder 3099. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

26

25

requirements but did not "neglect the needs of students who

desire to pursue the commercial course or to work in the

area of industrial and household arts." They commended

North Tarrytown Junior High for adding a vocational course

to the regular courses, endeavoring to give a "practical

turn" to the regular courses plus manual training for boys

and cooking for girls. Hut they recommended for both the

junior high and the high school "broadening the practical

opportunities . certainly in commercial work and in the

household arts for the girls and in the industrial arts for

boys."29

Another survey took place as a result of a letter to

Wallace Buttrick, explaining that an inheritance of

$1,650,000 had been left for the education of the poor in

Winchester, Virginia and requesting help from the "experts."

A second letter thanked him for the survey that the GEB had

agreed to do. A news clipping of 1920, published by the

Winchester Chamber of Commerce, explained the outcome of the

study. They planned an athleti, stadium, auditorium, art-

history museum, dispensary and center of hygiene instruc-

tion, swimming pool, gymnasium and shower baths, domestic

science and home economics laboratories, cafeteria lunch

facilities, open air classroom for anemic or convalescent

n"The School Situation at Tarrytown, North Tarrytown, andAdjoining Districts," report, .to GEB, 1919, 3,8. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 268. Folder 2772.Rockefeller Archive Center.

26

children, vocational and pre-vocational shops for agri-

culture w'd industry, library-study room, and agricultural

laboratory and experimental orchard. Those plans indicate a

definite leaning toward vocational education for those poor

children."

The GEB conducted a survey in Indiana in 1921-1922.

The *-41port concluded that vocational education was.inado-

quate and limited and needed to be considered a part of the

regular educational pro4ram and needed to include all

students. The specifically recommended agriculture for boys

and home economics for girls. In faci: a news clipping

reported that vocational education was favored "beyond all

other forms of education."31

The results of these surveys indicate definite

interest in promoting vocational education. In Maryland;

Gary, Indiana; Tarrytown, New York; Winchester, Virginia;

and Indiana the survey results are in keeping with the

survey policy, as stated by the GEB committee for educa-

tional investigation. The committee recommendations

"R. Gray Williams, Virginia, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB,28 February 1917. Williams, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 5 June1917. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 305.Folder 3179. Winchester, Virginia Caamber of Commerce,article in The Apple, Core, 27 October 1920. General EducationBoard records. Jeries 1. Box 305. Folder 3184. Rockcifeller

Archive Center.

31"Chapter VII Vocational Education," rough draft of GEBsurvey report, date? "High Spots in the School Survey," IhgIndianapolis News, 23 November 1922. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 311. Folder 3249. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

25

27

specifically supported Gates' position paper on the rural

school, which touted agricultural and domestic education.

Furthermore, for schools generally they seemed to recommend

vocational education as a genuine alternative for non -

college bound students. More importantly legislatures also

saw their recommendations as significant, many enacting GEB

advisements into laws.

Position Statements

The GEB also published policy statements of the

Board and "Occasional Papers." The purpose of the Occa-

sional Paper WAS to distribute them in large numbers and

bring the subject to the attention of those who were

interested.32 Additionally, Abraham Flexner appeared to

use these to stimulate discussions, sending the papers to

different people and asking for a response.

Occasional Paper NuAber One was The County School of

Tomorrow, by Frederick Gates. In it Gates called for drop-

ping educational traditions: not to teach them to be

philosophers, men of science, lawyers, doctors, or politi-

cians but to teach them to meet the "lowly" needs of rural

life. He suggested the need to teach "every industry in the

district": kitchen, barn, dairy, shop. He listed such

necessary information as health, how to cook, what and how

32Wallace Buttrick, GEB, tc; Leon S. Merrill, Maine, 11May1915. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 275.Folder 2864. Rockefeller Archive Center.

29

28

to eat, model kitchens, model homes, and making clothing.

Further he addressed the importance of scientific farming

and the school as a community. He envisioned a community of

young workers in agriculture, kitchen, sewing, dairy,

orchard, lawn, etc. He minimized the importance of the

"three R's" and suggested they only be taught within the

realm of experience.33

In an exchange of letters between Abraham Flexner

and Charles Eliot, Flexner addressed The Country School of

Tomorrow. He said that the Board had been authorized to

promote such an experiment in rural education. Eliot's

response was equally telling. He referred to a surgeon who

had been compelled to study Latin and Greek.

He believed that he got as much appropriate mentaltraining out of the languages as he would have outof natural history and mechanical studies. He wasof course deluded; but he did not know that.

Flexner's return letter indicated agreement with Eliot.34

Charles Eliot, who was with the GEB after his

retirement from Harvard, wrote Occasional Paper Number Two,

Chanaea _Needed in Secondary Education. Flexner sent copies

of this paper to certain people, asking for their comments.

33Frederick T. Gates, The Country Ikauml, of Tomorrow,Occasional Papers, No. 1 (New York: General Education Board,1924), 6-11.

34Abraham Flexner, GEB, to Charles Eliot, GEB, 21 July1916. Charles Eliot, GEB, to Abraham Flexner, 24 July 1916.Abraham Flexner, to Charles Eliot, 27 July 1916. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 270. Folder 2797.Rockefeller Archive Center.

30

29

He then wrote Eliot with the replies he had received. One

opinion was from Charles JUdd of the University of Chicago

School of Education. Eliot had written that the future of

human development depended on industry. He had supported

practical courses, elimination of memory work, and use of

concrete experiences. Although Judd agreed with the use of

concrete experiences, he stated that science, philosophy,

theology, and language were more important for intellectual

development and that memory work was sometimes needed."

On March 6, 1916 the GEB issued a press release in

response to Eliot's paper. It referred to parts of Eliot's

essay, saying that the best knowledge came from observation

of the senses and that poor children were better off having

to do things. They recommended more hand, ear, and eye

work, such as drawing, carpentry, turning, music, sewing,

cooking, and the sciences of observation (chemistry,

physics, biology, and geology.) For country schools they

added agriculture and work in a school garden.116

Occasional Paper Number Three was pi Modern School by

Abraham Flexner. He supported the need for the rudiments of

"AbrahamFlexner, GEB, to Professor Paul Shorey, Chicago,29 January 1917. General Education Board records. Series 1.

Box 275. Folder 2864. Charles H. Judd, Chicago, to AbrahamFlexner, GEB, 30 November 1915. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 261. Folder 2700. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

36"Defects in American Educational Methods," pressrelease, GEB, 6 March 1916. General Education Board records.Series 1. Box 261. Folder 2700. Rockefeller Archive Center.

31

30

education but not tor courses whose purpose it is to "train .

the mind." Rather, he maintained that a "man educated in

the modern sense . . . will be contentedly ignorant of

things for learning which no better reason than tradition

can be assigned." He preferred studies that served "real

purposes," which he divided into four fields: science,

industry, aesthetics, and civics. "Industry" included

learning a manual skill and even work in industry. His

recommended curriculum did not include, for example, algebra

or geometry for any person who would not need it."

Flexner continued publishing his opinions even after

some adverse reactions. William McAndrew wrote him,

accusing him of supporting child-centered over subject-

centered curriculum. He stated that although centrr'ized

government could train for industrial efficiency, that

attitude in education had caused a classed society. He

recommended helping individuals to utilize their powers and

to want to use them for the benefit of their fellows. Not

all reactions opposed him, however. Thomas A. Edison took

the opposite approach: "no school which adopts the sugges-

tion of Eliot and Flexner can possibly fail," he stated.

"Abraham Flexner, &Modern Scbool, Occasional Paper No.

3, April 1917. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box

352. Folder 3636. Rockefeller Archive Center.

32

31

"That school will anticipate that which in twenty years will

become universal."311

Floxner also wrote some articles addressing

aducation. In Parents and Schools, he stated that mental

discipline did not carry over to other subjects, exc3pt in

particular categories. He went on to declare that learning

Virgil was just as valid as learning to bake a pumpkin pie.

Regarding formal grammar and arithmetic, he maintained that

they were not necessary beyond a few basics and that if one

did not need them, he should not study them. "Education as

Mental Discipline" addressed training of the mental facul-

ties. Ho stated that schools should concern themselves with

what children naturally do, offering subjects that serve a

purpose, to replace Latin, math, ancient history, and

"bookish" science."

The General Education Board issued some reports on

education that also contained policy statements. Wallace

Buttrick wrote about the poor state of agriculture in the

South, that farmers were not heeding the advice of the

National Department of Agriculture and that boys were

"William McAndrew, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 3 April 1916.Thomas A. Edison, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 28 April 1916.General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 261. Folder2700. Rockefeller Archive Canter.

39Abraham Flexner, "Parents and Schools," The AtlanticMonthly, July 1916, 29-30. "Education as Mental Discipline,"Thoe_Atlantic Monthly, April 19178 452-462. General EducationBoard records. Series 1. Box 268. Folder 2770. RockefellerArchive Center.

33

32

leaving the South. To correct this problem, he called for

agricultural schools, one in every consolidated district,

and practical textbooks to teach agriculture. He warned

that "nature study," such as it was known then, was too

cultural and not practical."

National Education Association (NEA) admonished the

GEB in 1914. Perhaps this public caution is telling,

regarding GEB activities during this time period:

We view with alarm the activities of Carnegie andRockefeller foundations, agencies not in any wayresponsible to the people, in their efforts tocontrol the policies of our state institutions; tofashion after their conception and to standardizeour courses of study, and to surround the institu-tions with conditions which menace true academicfreedom and defeat the primary purpose of democracyas heretofore preserved inviolable in our commonschools, normal schools, and universities."

The GEB's response was carefully worded to indicate

that they had never tried to control or modify policies or

courses of study. It enumerated their programs: agricul-

tural clubs and farm demonstrations, Professor of Secondary

Education (whose actions were determined by their own

institutions), colleges and universities, Negro schools

(especially industrial education), and certain experiments

"Wallace Buttrick, GEB, report, date? General EducationBoard records. Series 1. Box 303. Folder 3169. RockefellerArchive Center.

""Final Draft of Reply to Resolution of NationalEducation Association," July 1914. General Education Boardrecords. Series 1. Box 329. Folder 3463. Rockefeller ArchiveCenter.

34

33

at throe universiti.s.42 Probably the unseen influence was

between the personnel who coordinated these programs and the

people who executed them.

An article in The South Atlantic Ouarterlv in 1915

doew more to elucidate GEB activities in southern rural

areas. They had been helping with farm demonstrations and

building dormitories for young people to attend county high

schools. Plus they had introduced the teaching of domestic

science, aided in agricultural club and demonstration work,

and devoted energies toward making school part of community

life."

Four reports by the GEB also describe some of their

involvement in educational activities. They viewed thoir

own activities as important and significant: "It is

difficult to overestimate the value of the several general

studies in public education financed by the board." At this

time they recommended that many of their activities be

turned over to the states but that they would still

cooperate with them."

°Mrs. John D. Hammond, "The Work of the General EducationBoard in the South, The South Atlantic Ouarterly, October,1915. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 329.Folder 3468. Rockefeller Archive Center.

"Report on Public Education, GEB, 24 June 1924. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 313. Folder 3275.Rockefeller Archive Center.

3 z)

34

In a 1926 report they praise the influence and "far

reaching" effects of Professors of Secondary Education and

Rural School Supervisors. Also, it states that following

the Indiana survey, the GEB had provided a two-year

demonstration of rural supervision in Indiana. Another 1926

report explicates some of their work in secondary education.

It states that ono way in which they had "helped" the South

in secondary education was in making appropriations to

extend the cooperative farm demonstration movement. Another

way was through Professors of Secondary Education. These

were In twelve states. In addition to programs to stimulate

education by improving facilities, teachers, attendance and

legislation, they had also worked on "suitable" courses of

study:

They emphasized the importance of placing in thecurriculum subjects which would prepare boys andgirls for living a useful life--for oxample suchsubjects as agriculture and home economics. As aresult some of the southern states established farmlife or agricultural schools . . . Reform of cur-riculum remains as one of the major problems facingeducational leaders.

Although they express concern that these programs were not

having a lasting effect on the South's largely academic

course of study, they close by saying that these endeavors

had been made poasible through gifts from the GEB.45

""What the General Education Board Has Done to EncourageSecondary Education in the South," 11 December 1926. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 313. Folder 3275.Rockefeller Archive Center.

35

In addition, a 1927 memorandum about surveys sheds

light on the GEB's attempted influence in educational

change. The report bemoans that the surveys, which they had

funded, had been publicized as General Education Board

surveys. This had caused political problems for them, it

states making it hard for their representatives to put their

recommendations into effect."

Although the GEB carefully worded their public

statements, their own reports are clear in indicating

deliberate influence in areas which they chose. One of the

area which they chose was agricultural education in rural

areas. Also, they recommended other vocational training and

domestic education. An attitude that people's destinies

were already set and that education should merely parallel

those or prepare students for them came through with some

consistency in position statements. At least one sector of

tha educational community was concerned about this phenome-

non, the National Education Association. Yet, apparently

the philanthropic activities were concealed in enough

rhetoric of noninterference that the General Education Board

continued to effect changes in education as they could

persuade people to accept them.

46"MemorandumGeneral Education3275. Rockefeller

re: Surveys and Field Service," 6 May 1927.Board records. Series 1. Box 313. FolderArchive Center.

3 7

36

Mantallinsursaanta

A last area to explore is comprised of letters

exchanged between two psychologists, Lewis M. Terman and

Robert M. Yerkes, and the General Education Board. These

letters indicate GEB interest in vocationalism because of

their willingness to fund Terman and Yerkos' plan. The

program involved vocational guidance for young people

leaving school and for businesses hiring them, diagnosis of

intelligence levels near the borderline of "mental defi-

ciency," and a three-tiered educational format. These

programs stemmed from testing done in the military in order

to separate and train according to ability. About this,

Yerkes claimed that it was not undemocratic and that it gave

a man a proper chance to learn. He said that he had been

bombarded by requests for such tests to use in schools.47

The three-tiered educational program consisted of a

high track for students bound for professions, a medium

track for those bound for industry, and a low track for

those bound for manual occupations. What would normally be

kindergarten through 5th grade would be a three year program

for the high track, four for the medium track, and six for

the low track. Yerkes' plan was to have each track attend

47Lewis M. Terman, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 18 January1917 and 31 January 1917. Robert M. Yerkes, to AbrahamFlexner, GEB, 19 January 1917/.17 January 1919. Yerkes, "TheMental Rating of School Children," to Flexner, 31 January1919. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 308.Folder 3223. Rockefeller Archive Center.

38

37

separate schools. Also, he stated that the present system

ignored individuality and was undemocratic."

Flexner wrote to Dr. C. M. Campbell of Johns Hopkins

who responded, "I entirely approve of this plan." He also

asked an opinion of Dr. Harry M. Thomas, a physician, who

also supported the plan. Flexner complained to Yerkes that

his suggestion made school too complicated, but that the

plan would require testing. Yerkes sent a pamphlet that

explained the army program and further explained his own

opinion that "low grade" children received large amounts of

attention and that "high grade" children were being

sacrificed. Flexner then notified Yerkes that the GEB was

giving $25,000 for them to develop intelligence tests for

school children."

=MAIM

The most extraordinary and obvious inference that

can be made from the five segments is that the GEB acted as

if people's destinies were set and that education should

parallel these destinies and prepare people to meet them.

"Robert M. Yeikes, "The Mental Rating of SchoolChildren," to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 31 January 1919. GeneralEducation Board records. Series 1. Box 308. Folder 3223.Rockefeller Archive Center.

"Abraham Flexner, GEB to Dr. C. M. Campbell, 30 January1919. Flexner, to Dr. Harry M. Thomas, 30 January 1919.Campbell, to Flexner, 4 February 1919. Thomas, to Flexner 6February 1919. Flexner, to Yerkes, 5 February 1919. Yerkes,to Flexner, 13 February 1919. Flexner, to Yerkes, 1 March1919. General Education Board records. Series 1. Box 308.Folder 3223. Rockefeller Archive Center.

3 9

38

In the three programs, Professors of Secondary Education,

Rural School Supervisors, and Surveys of Education, changes

were made in curriculum, apparently without persuasion from

the GES, yet by their awn admission their programs had been

successful and influential. Also, the GEB carefully watched

over its funds. If a person did not follow its prescription,

funds were removed. In addition, all of the programs

culminated in the same emphases of practical, vocational,

and domestic courses. In the Gary survey, for example, they

praised the opportunities afforded a young person.

Vie policy statements are clearer statements of

belief and intent, that rural education or education for

people with manual destinations should only be concerned

with the immediate situations and consequences. Apparently,

for example, it bothered GEB members not the least that, in

order to stimulate agriculture in the South, young people's

education should consist primarily of agriculture and

domestics. How much control the GEB exerted is not clear.

Again, policy statements indicated interest in advancing

vocational education. Also control over the programs funded

is seen, as well as choosing their own people to conduct

surveys, and holding private transactions before a more

public meeting. All of these tognther show a pattern of

control. Perhaps one can say that they were used to getting

their own way. Yet, even in the best of circumstances one

cannot predict outcome. Appendix A indicates that through

4 0

39

all of the vocationalizing, students mainly preferred

academics. Appendix B shows some examples of GEB funding

and amounts that were spent.

The benefit of this study lies not in placing blame

or praise, but in observing actions. Trott the evidence,

reasoning cannot be inferred, yet the nationwide movement

toward what may be termed a "factory model" of schooling did

have at its roots belief in the inferiority of certain

classes of people, such as poor, ethnic, and rural. James

D. Anderson's study has shown the actions of industrial

philanthropic groups and others to impose training for lower

class jobs upon black Americans in the South." This study

has shown that this paternalistic attitude extended to rural

and poor people of other ethnic derivation also.

50James D. Anderson, The Educaticnof Blacks in the South.

4

AMA

APPENDIX A

Inrollment in Public Nigh Schools byCourse of Study, 1923-1924 51

Percent.Tethnical Percent. Percent.

Percent. Percent. or Minmal Teacher Percent. Percent. Idustrial

Academic Commercial Training Training Agricultural Nome lc. or Trading

QUASI CINIA21 OREM QUASI Cana COMA COMA

Virginia 84.1 6.3 1.4 0.1 2.4 5.3 0.4

North Carolina 84.0 3.4 1.0 0.2 2.6 8.2 0.4

Georgia 72.8 8.5 6.4 0.4 3.7 7.8 0.4

Alabama 82.0 4.4 2.3 0.2 3.6 7.3 0.2

Tennessee 74.8 2.7 2.8 3.0 3.9 12.7 0.1

South Carolina 81.4 4.9 0.9 0.1 4.4 7.8 0.5

Florida 90.0 0.4 2.7 0.3 1.7 4.9 -.-

Louisiana 75.4 6.7 0.5 1.4 2.0 13.9 0.1

Mississippi 74.9 2.5 1.0 1.8 $.2 11.6 0.2

Arkansas 74.8 3.6 4.7 1.3 5.1 9.6 0.9

%kat Virginia 79.7 8.5 2.6 0.7 1.9 6.3 0.3

Kentucky 83.7 4.9 1.5 0.2 3.5 6.0 0 '

United States 72.7 13.5 4.9 1.1 1.8 5.0 1.3

51Table 5: "Enrollment in Public Nigh Schools by Courses of Study, 1923-1924." General Education

Board records. Series I. Box 313. Polder 3275. Rockefeller Archive Center.

4 3

APPENDIX B

SAMPLE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD APPROPRIATIONS

nflahni.11:52

Gary Survey 1915-19161916-1917

41

$18,580.5426,583.43

Indiana Department of EducationAssistant to State Superintendant 1923-1924 10

Survey of Education 1921-23 12*500.00/383.09

National Committee on Mathematical RequirementsFor Reorganising the Math Curricula in

Secondary Schools 1919-1920 16,000.001920-1924 38,797.55

Esuatharin.lhita :53

FloridaSurvey of Public School System 24,999.56Preparation of Elementary and Secondary

Curriculum 7,152.23Professors of Secondary Education 35,252.23State Agents for Secondary Education 24,052.73Rural School Agents 1,244.72

AlabamaSurvey of Public Education 1919Professors of Secondary Education 1904-1925State Agents for Secondary Education 1920-25Rural School Agents 1914-1929

28,755.7865,487.1129,352.2674,195.24

ArkansasProfessors of Secondary Education 1904-1925 56,961.75State Agents for Secondary Education 1920-25 29,495.00Rural School Agents 1914-1929 116,501.75

GeorgiaProfessors of Secondary Education 1905-1925 39,740.00State Agents for Secondary Education 1920-25 26,341.26Rural School Agents 1914-1928 60,944.82

KentuckySurvey of Public Education 1920-1921Professors of Secondary EducationState Agents for Secondary EducationRural School Agents

4 4

17,135.2048,750.1626,347.20

106,424.89

APPENDIX B (Continued)

SAMPLE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD APPROPRIATIONS

LouisianaSurvey 1929Professors of Secondary EducationRural School Agents

MississippiStudy of High Schools 1928Professors of Secondary EducationState Agents of Secondary EducationRural School Agents 1914-1928

42

2,197.3931,144.4468,545.71

3,500.0054,380.2731,339.4573,945.58

North CarolinaSurvey of Educational Conditions and Needs 17,383.44Professors of Secondary Education 66,275.00

State Agents for Secondary Education 31,372.57

Rural School Agents 58,512.48

South CarolinaProfessors of Secondary EducationState Agents for Secondary EducationRural School Agents

TennesseeProfessors of Secondary EducationState Agents for Secondary EducationRural School Agents

VirginiaSurvey of Public Education,

Educational Tests 1919Professors of Secondary EducationRural School Agents

OklahomaState Agents for Rural Schools

West VirginiaState Agents for Rural SchoolsProfessors of Secondary Education

64,441.6629,692.1854,130.13

55,873.9324,124.9957,172.90

11,383.2567,799.7058,040.41

62,216.46

65,551.9452,594.54

"General Education Board Appropriations, Northern.General Education Board records. Series 2. Box 19.

Rockefeller Archive Center. .

"General Education Board Appropriations, Southern.General Education Board records. Series 2. Box 18.

Rockefeller Archive Center.

45

B I BLIOGRAPHY

4 3

WORKS CITED

ha2lia

Anderson, James D. The Education of Blacks in the South.1860-1935. Chapel Hill. The University of NorthCarolina Press, 1988.

Fosdick, Raymond B. Adventure in Giving: The Story of theangraLisbagatiguLmiutd. New York: Harper & Row,Publishers, 1962.

Link, William A. zoiaxasailantrSociety.

Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,1986.

General Education Board Records, Lettgrs

ALIGtilanuscriasza_22alssa

Bachman, Frank. GEB, to Abraham Platt-re GEB, 4 December1914. Series 1. Box 207. Folder 1991.

Bailey, Thomas P. Mississippi, Report to GEB,1908. Series 1. Box 93. Folder 329.

Bond, J. L. Arkansas, letter to a county superintendent,TMS, date? Series 1. Box 26. Folder 230.

December

Bond, J. L. Arkansas, to1915. Series 1. Box

Bond, J. L. Arkansas, to1914. Series 1. Box

Abraham Flexner, GEB, 2 October26. Folder 230.

Wallace Buttrick, GEE, 31 December26. Folder 230.

acipton Evgning Transcript. Clipping of article. Title? 26

May 1919. Series 1. Box 297. Folder 3098.

Brogden, L. C. North Carolina, Report of Conference to E.C. Sage, GEL 19 December 1917. Series 1. Box 113.Folder 1028.

44

47

45

Brogden, L. C. "Report of L. C. Brogdon-State Agent forRural Schools for North Carolina, November 1915."Series 1. Box 275. Folder 2863.

Brogden, L. C. North Carolina, Report to GEB, 11 February1915. Series 1. Box 113. Folder 1028.

Brogden, L. C. North Carolina, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB, 13February 1915. Series 1. Box 113. Folder 1028.

Brown, C. J. Lousiana, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 3 April1917. Series 1. Box 88. Folder 782.

Brown, J. B. "Brief Statement of Progress in Rural Schoolsof Tennessee, 1915-1916. Series 1. Box 157. Folder1463.

Brown, J. B. Tennessee, "Declaratin of Principles Preparedby Rural School Agents," TMS to Wallace Buttrick, 2 July1917. Series 1. Box 275. Folder 2862.

Buttrick, Wallace. GEB, Report, Date? Series 1. Box 303.Folder 3169.

Ruttrick, Wallace. GEB, to Leon S. Merrill, Maine, 11 May1915. Serif- 1. Box 275. Folder 2864.

Buttrick, Wallace. GEB, to W. K. Tate, South Carolina, 16July 1912. Series 1. Box 201. Folder 1906.

Calhoun, J. T. Mississippi, to Abraham Flexner, GEL 20September 1916. Series 1. Box 98. Folder 868.

Campbell, C. M. To Abraham Flexner, GEB, 4 February 1919.Series 1. Box 308. Folder 3223.

Cawthon, W. S. Florida, Report to GEB, 5 October 1920.Series 1. Box 32. Folder 290.

"Chapter VII Vocational Education." Rough Draft of GEBSurvey Report. TMS date? Series 1. Box 311. Folder3249.

Coatets, T. J. "Summary of Reports of Mr. T. J. Coates -State Agent for Rural Schools in Kentucky. July 1, 1915to January 1, 1916." Series 1. Box 81. Folder 710.

Dashiell, L. R. Virginia, "Program of Meetings Christians-burg, Virginia, 26-29 Juni 1917." TMS to GEB. Series1. Box 188. Folder 1765.

48

46

Dashiell, L. R. Virginia, Report to Frederick T. Gates,GEB. 19 December 1914. Series 1. Box 188. Folder1765.

Davis, Jackson. GEB. "General Principl4m in Dealing withState Superintendents of Education." To Trevor Arnett,GEB, 8 December 1932. Series 1. Box 269. Folder 2777.

"Defects in American Educational Methods." Press Release,GEB. 6 March 1916. Series 1. Box,261. Folder 2700.

"Detailed Report of Conference of State Superintendents, OldPoint Comfort, Virginia, April 22, 29, and 30, 1919."TMS. Series 1. Box 267. Folder 2779.

Dubose, Joel C. Alabama. Rules and Regulations for theGovernment of the County High Schools of Alabama withCourse of Study and List of Textbooks for theseSchools." June 1911. Series 1. Box 13. Folder 109.

Debose, Joel C. Alabama to Buttrick, GEB, 19 August 1907.Series 1. Box 13. Folder 109.

Duggan, M. L. Georgia, to Wallace Buttrick, GEB, 12 May1917. Series 1. Box 69. Folder 601.

Edison, Thomas A. To Abraham Flexner, GEB, 28 April 1916.Series 1. Box 261. Folder 2700.

Eliot, Charles. GEB, to Abraham Flexner, 24 July 1916.Series 1. Box 270. Folder 2797.

Feagin, W. F. Alabama, to Abraham Flexner, 21 April 1916.Series 1. Box 18. Folder 155.

"Final Draft of Reply to Resolution of National EducationAssociation," July 1914. Series 1. Box 329. Folder3463.

Flexner, Abraham. "Education as Mental Discipline." TheAtlantic Monthly (April 1917): 452-462. TMS. Series 1.Box 268. Folder 2770.

Flexner, Abraham. A Modern Vchool. Occasinal Papers No. 3.TMS. April 1917. Series 1. Box 352. Folder 3636.

Flexner, Abraham. "Parents and Schools." The AtlanticMonthly (July 1916): 29-30. TMS. Series 1. Box 268.Folder 2770.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to Charles Eliot, GEB, 21 July 1916.Series 1. Box 270. Folder 2797.

49

Flexner, Abraham.1917. Series

Flexner, Abraham.1917. Series

Flexner, Abraham.1917. Series

Flexner, Abraham.1919. Series

GEB, to C.1. Box 88.

GEB, to C.1. Box 88.

GEB, to Dr.1. Box 308.

GEB, to Dr.1. Box 308.

J. Brown, Louisana, 4 AprilFolder 782.

J. Brown, Louisana, 11 AprilFolder 782.

C. N. Campbell, 30 JanuaryFolder 3223.

Harry M. Thomas, 30 JanuaryFolder 3223.

47

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to Henry Pritchett, The CarnegieFoundation. 23 June 1915. Series 1. Box 207. Folder1991.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to J. N. Powers, Mississippi, 1 July1914. Series 1. Box 98. Folder 868.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to Professor Paul Shorey, Chicago,29 January 1917. Series 1. Box 275. Folder 2964.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to R. H. Wilson, Oklahoma, 8 March1915. Series 1. Box 300. Folder 3135.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to W. K. Tate, South Carolina, 14September 1916. Series 1. Box 353. Folder 3647.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to Robert M. Yerkes,1919. Series 1. Box 308. Folder 3223.

Flexner, Abraham. GEB, to Robert M. Yerkes,Series 1. Box 308. Folder 3223.

5 February

1 March 1919.

Friend, L. L. West Virginia. "Annual Report of the StateSupervisor of High Schools of West Virginia for theSchool Year 1911-1912." To GER, November 1912. Series1. Box 190. Folder 1782.

"From Current Issue of ManualTraining & VocationalEducation." Clipping of article, Newspaper? December1918. Series 1. Box 297. Folder 3098.

Gates, Frederick T. The Country School of TomoKrow,Occasional Papers No. 1 New York: General EducationBoard, 1924. Series 1. Box 270.

"General Board to Do It." Baltimore,Clipping of article. 23 December276. Folder 2882.

50

Folder 2796.

Maryland 2.on.1914. Series 1. Box

"General Education Board Appropriations,2 Box 19.

"General Education Board Appropriations,2 Box 18.

48

Northern." Series

Southern." Series

Greene, Jerome: Wallace Buttrick, and Abraham Flexner,Report to Members of GEB, October 1914. Series 1. Box346. Folder 3586.

Gunter, Lueco. "Summany of Reporte,of Mr. Lueco GunterState Agent for Rural Schools in South Carolina, July 1,1915 - November, 1915. Series 1. Box 131. Folder1198.

Hammond, Mrs. John D. "The Work of the General EducationBoard in the South." The_agjestakts,(October 1915). Series 1. Box 329. Folder 3468.

Hand, W. H.October

Hand, W. H.October

South Carolina,1907. Series 1.

South Carolina,1907. Series 1.

Report toBox 128.

Report toBox 128.

Buttrick, GEB, 3Folder 1173.

Buttrick, GEB, 18Folder 1173.

"High Spots in the School Survey." Ibm_InglAmaglig_lismal23 November 1922. Series 1. Box 311. Folder 3249.

Holmes, Henry W. "The Gary System Examined ." TheAmerican Review of Reviows: 612-613. Clipping. Series1. Box 297. Folder 3099.

Ivy, H. M. Mississippi, Report to W. F. Bond, Mississippi,30 October 1920. Series 1. Box 94. Folder 836.

Judd, Charles H. Chicago, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 30November 1915. Series 1. Box 261. Folder 2700.

Judson, Frissell, Rose, and Flexner, GEB Committee, Report,to GEB, 27 October 1915. Series 1. Box 353. Folder3650.

Judson. GEB, to Flexneri GEB, 18 December 1915.Box 353. Folder 3650.

Series 1.

Maphis, Charles G. Virginia, letter to Superintendent (TMSto GEB), 23 May 1912. Series 1. Box 180. Folder 1686.

Maryland State Legislature. TMS Legislation. 1916. Series1. Box 276. Folder 2886.

5i

49

McAndrew, William. To Abraham Flexnor, GEB, 3 April 1916.Series 1. Box 261. Folder 2700.

"Memorandum re; Surveys and Field Service." 6 May 1927.Series 1. Box 313. Folder 3275.

Metcalfe, Tristram Walker. "Gary Plan an Experiment,Administration Defective." The Globe and CommercialAdvertiser. 4 December 1918. Series 1. Box 297.Folder 3098.

Metcalfe, Tristram Walker. "Pupils Do Just About as TheyPlease in Schools of Gary." The Globe and CommercialAdvertiser. 6 December 1916. Series 1. Box 297.Folder 3098.

Murphee, A. A. and John W. Abercrombie, to Wickliffe Rose,GEB, 27 Decembfa: 1924. Series 1. Box 267. Folder2779.

Parkinson, B. L. South Carolina. "Annual Report of B. L.Parkinson State High School Inspector for 1920-22," 25,28. Series 1. Box 129. Folder 1183.

Payne, Bruce R. Virginia, to Buttrick, GEB, 31 October1906. Series 1. Box 180. Folder 1684.

"Report of Conference of State Agents of Rural Schools,April 22-24, 1919." TMS to GER. Series 1. Box 275.Folder 2863.

"Report of Conference Held in Baltimore April 22, 23, and24, 1919, With State Agents for Rural Schools and theState Agents for Negro Schools, and at Old PointComfort, April 25, 26 and 27, 28, 29, and 30, 1919, withthe Professors of Secondary Education and the StateSuperintendents." TMS. Series 1. Box 267. Folder2779.

"Report on Public Education." GEB, 25 June 1924. Series 1.Box 313. Folder 3275.

Rhoads, McHenry, Kentucky, to Henry S. Barker, Kentucky,(TMS to Buttrick, GEB), 2 September 1913. Series 1.Box 77. Folder 674.

Rhoads,(TMS77.

McHenry, Kentucky, to Henry S. Barker, Kentucky,to Buttrick, GEB), 3 October 1913. Series 1. Box

Folder 674.

5Z'

Richards, Charles R. "Industrial Work of the GarySchools. InguitriaklatiAmajana. Clipping.1. Box 297. Folder 3099.

Rockefellar, John D. To General Education Board,1907. Series 1. Box 345. Folder 3569.

Rockefeller, John D., Jr. GEB, to Jerome Greene,ber 1914. Series 1. Box 346. Folder 3586.

50

PublicSeries

15 August

24 Novem-

Sage, E. C. GEB, to Henry S. Pritchett, The CarnegieFoundation, 6 March 1909. Series 1. Box 207. Folder1990.

"School Life." Department of the Interior, Bureau ofEducation, 10 (December 1918). Clipping. Series 1.Box 297. Folder 3098.

"The School Situation at Tarrytown, North Tarrytown, andAdjoining Districts." Report, to GEB, TM'S 1919. Series1. Box 268. Folder 2772.

"Shake-Up Expected." Baltimore, Maryland um. Clipping ofarticle. 22 November 1915. Series 1. Box 276.Folder 2882.

Stewart, Joseph S.Series 1. Box

Stewart, Joseph S.1905. Series 1.

Stewart, Joseph S.Series 1. Box

Stewart, Joseph S.1906. Series 1.

Stewart, Joseph S.1906. Series 1.

Georgia, to Buttrick, GEB, 3 July 1905.57. Folder 505.

Georgia, to Buttrick,Box 57. Folder 505.

Georgia, to Buttrick,57. Folder 505.

Georgia,Box 57.

Georgia,Box 57.

to Buttrick,Folder 505.

to Buttrick,Folder 505.

GEB, 15 November

GEB, 8 May 1906.

GEB, 3 September

GEB, 10 November

"Table 5: Enrollment in Public High Schocas by Course ofStudy, 1923-1924." TMS. Series 1. Box 313. Folder3275.

Tate, W. K. South Carolina, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 14October 1916. Series 1. Box 353. Folder 3647.

Tate, William Knox. South Carblina, to Frederick Gates,GEB, 12 July 1912. Series 1. Box 201. Folder 1906.

53

51

Tate, William Knox. "Statement of Proposals Adopted bySouthern Education Council and Special Committee of theConference for Education in the South, Louisville,Kentucky, April 8, 1914." MS, to Wallace Buttrick,GEB, 25 April 1914. Series 1. Box 201. Folder 1906.

Terman, LewisSeries 1.

Terman, LewisSeries 1.

M. To Abraham Flexner,Box 308. Folder 3228.

M. To Abraham Flexner,Box 308. Folder 3228.

GEB, 18 January 1917.

GEB, 31 January 1917.

Thackston, Jno. Florida, to E. C. Sage, GEB, 14 April 1914.Series 1. Box 35. Folder 318.

"Third Annual School Fair, Monroe County, October 1915,"Pamphlet% Series 1. Box 26. Folder 232.

Thomas, Harry M. To Abraham Flexner, GEB, 6 February 1919.Series 1. Box 308. Folder 3223.

Torreyson, B. W. Arkansas. "Education Progress in ArkansasJune 1914 - June 1915," to GEB. Series 1. Box 22.Folder 192.

"What the General Education Board Has Done to EncourageSecondary Education in the South." 11 December 1926.Series 1. Box 313. Folder 3275.

Williams, R. Gray. Virginia, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 5June 1917. Series 1. Box 305. Folder 3179.

Williams, R. Gray. Virginia, to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 28February 1917. Series 1. Box 305. Folder 3179.

Winchester, Virginia, Chamber of Commerce, Clipping ofarticle in Thit-A2212.S2E21 27 October 1920. Series 1.Box 305. Folder 3184.

Yerkes, Robert M. "The Mental Rating of School Children,"to Abraham Flexner, GEB, 31 January 1919. Series 1.Box 308. Folder 3228.

Yerkes, Robert M. To1:i19. Series 1.

Yerkes, Robert M. To1919. Series 1.

Yerkes, Robert M. To1917. Series 1.

Abraham Flexner,Box 308. Folder

Abraham Flexner,Box 308.. Folder

Abraham Flexner,Box 308. Folder

5 4

GEB, 133223.

GEB, 173228.

GEB, 193228.

February

January

January